Wednesday, February 11, 2009

O'Reilly responds to complaints about his sexism, ageism

by Chloe Angyal

Ok, I'm only going to write a few lines about Bill O'Reilly, because the man is an idiot who barely deserves our attention. I'd be ignoring him completely if the ass-kicking feminist blogger Courtney Martin hadn't been on his show tonight. Forgive the totally offensive title of the below video - it was the only video footage I could find. That said, "libtard" is one I haven't heard before. Right wing nuts are so inventive.

So first of all, O'Reilly calls the Women's Media Center's response to his "jokes" about Helen Thomas "political correctness gone mad." As though it's an outrageous and overly-PC to demand that he speak respectfully about one of the White House press corps' most legendary reporters. (Also, calling something a "joke" isn't a get-out-of-being-offensive-free card).

Then, he describes the organization Media Matters, an organization much like the WMC, as "hoping to harm people with whom it disagrees." Because that is something that Bill O'Reilly would never do. Next, he shows a montage of Helen Thomas espousing liberal (read: filthy, unpatriotic) views, after which he says, "attagirl." Attagirl, seriously? Did you just walk off the set of Mad Men? Who even says that any more? And to a respected woman reporter, no less?

Finally, Bill proclaims that he can't possibly be a sexist or an ageist, because just last week he was accused of being a racist. Well, I've got bad news for you, Bill. You can be all three at once. And Bill, you are all three at once. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Bill O'Reilly, winner of the prestigious "Once, twice, three times an asshole" Award. Congrats Bill, congrats.

Congrats to Courtney for staying calm and cool and calling him out when he started to do his "where were you, madam?" bit. She's a courageous lady, and I don't mean that the way Bill O'Reilly means it, in the "I'm so scary that I'm surprised a person devoid of testicles will take me on" kind of way. And congrats (and thanks) to all of you who signed the WMC petition, demanding that O'Reilly apologize to Helen Thomas. He did - he sent her flowers, which, as he humbly pointed out, surely made this "her best Valentine's Day ever." Attaboy.